An assortment of all things interesting (and possibly useless) in the legal profession

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Congress to Vote on AIG Tax

The House is set to vote on the 90% tax we discussed the other day. While plainly geared to recoup the AIG bonuses, the tax is going to be broader. As the AP reports:

The House is scheduled to vote today on a bill that would levy a 90 percent tax on bonuses paid to employees with family incomes above $250,000 at companies that have received at least $5 billion in government bailout money.

We'll keep you posted on how this plays out.

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UPDATE (3:19 PM): It looks like Jeff and his allies will be upset, but we hope the most recent news won't scare them away. As it turns out, Congress overwhelmingly passed the bill 328-93, according to the New York Times. According to the Times, the Senate will take up the matter next week.

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UPDATE (5:25 PM): TaxProf Blog has posted further details on the bill, including PDFs of the relevant documents. We encourage you to take a look.

Your articles all reflect a crazy liberal bias! These people worked for their bonuses, they had contracts which provided for them (contracts approved by President Obama). Now HE is waiving the torch in their face to save his own skin. These people deserve their bonuses. Stop treating them so badly.

I agree with Jeff here. Not about the liberal bias thing, but the general point. It's an unpopular position, and I think that's why no one's taking it, but really, you should question how you'd feel if you were an employee promised a bonus and the government tried to take it away. What would you do to provide for your family? Your bills? It's unfair, and it is Obama's fault.

I strongly disagree with Jeff on the death penalty issue in that post (assuming it's the same Jeff, which seems likely) but he's on to something here.